A tow operator is asking to either have his trial separated from Portage Mayor James Snyder’s or to have both of their dates pushed back again.

John Cortina, of Kustom Auto Body in Portage, and Snyder are currently set to begin their jury trial on Oct. 9 in Hammond’s federal court.

Cortina, 79, and his attorney, Kevin Milner, filed a motion Friday asking for a continuance.

The motion cites a medical procedure that has been scheduled Oct. 16 for one of Milner’s family members.

“Efforts to schedule the surgery at an earlier date were curtailed by issues regarding insurance coverage,” the document said.

The government and Milner “agree that the trial is likely to extend past” Oct. 16, according to the motion.

Cortina and Snyder were charged in November 2016 with violating a federal bribery statute. Federal prosecutors said the mayor solicited money from Cortina and "Individual A" and gave them a towing contract for Portage.

Snyder also was indicted for allegedly accepting $13,000 in connection with a Portage Board of Works contract and for allegedly obstructing IRS laws.

Snyder and Cortina have pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to court documents.

Cortina “does not wish to inconvenience the court, the government or defendant Snyder,” so Milner “is requesting that either his case be severed from defendant Snyder’s and continued for trial or that both defendants remained joined with the trial, again, being continued,” according to the motion.

Snyder’s and his attorney’s positions on the continuance or whether to separate their trials “has not been learned,” the motion states.

A ruling on Milner’s request had not been made as of Friday afternoon, court records show.

The trial was initially scheduled to begin in January 2017. It was pushed back to give attorneys time to go over the evidence and to file their motions.

Snyder requested one continuance after he hired a new attorney, Jackie Bennett Jr., of Taft Stettinius and Hollister in Indianapolis, when his previous attorney Thomas Kirsch II was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana.

Snyder asked for the continuance to October partly due to issues over emails obtained by the government that the defense argued were privileged.

On Thursday, Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen denied Snyder’s motion to dismiss the indictment or to disqualify the government’s trial team over the emails. But the judge said that one exhibit containing emails with financial records could not be used, according to the order.